WFMU did an amazing six-hour special on James Brown on Christmas exactly five years ago, streamable from their archive in a variety of formats and bitrates: Link

R. Chonak says,

Loudersoft’s servers are overloaded now, so BB readers can’t get to
that James Brown MP3. However, it’s available via Coral’s servers: MP3 link

robby staven says,

This youtube link is Eddie Murphy doing James Brown. This bit turned a lot of young folks on to James when he wasn’t at a really high point in his career. It arguably was the basis for James’ 1980s-’90s comeback.

The man behind that six-hour WMFU set, music journalist Douglas Wolk, also wrote a short but excellent book (Amazon Link) about “Live At The Apollo”, one of the best live albums ever recorded. Despite not being a big James Brown fan, I really enjoyed it. Douglas will also be doing a short piece about Brown tomorrow on Democracy Now.

Another James Brown-related item few people are aware of: JB (James Brown)-style roller skating (YouTube link). Originating in Chicago, this style of skating responds to the unique rhythms and breaks of James Brown’s music. Groups of JB skaters hit a different rink nearly every night of the week to show their stuff. On Thursdays at “The Rink” on 87th St, or Sunday nights at Glenwood, there’s barely room on the floor. I discovered the JB skating scene (and rediscovered Brown’s music) when I was training to try out for a roller derby league. My only regret about making the derby league is that I no longer have time to see (I am nowhere near agile enough to “do”) JB skating.

Nigel says,

If you’re in SF on any Sunday don’t miss the skaters in Golden Gate Park dancing like those in the JB youtube video. I had no idea it was called JB skating, just that it is amazing to watch. I took my son (6) to the park recently and one of the skaters took him under her wing and was holding his hand as he skated around with all of the other dancers/skaters. He had so much fun and even started doing his own moves. The skaters are incredible athletes and nice folks to boot!

Mark Frauenfelder:
Tim says: “A friend of mine recently
went to jail for 2-3 weeks (neglected a traffic ticket for too long).
What do you get for someone going to jail? A cake with a hacksaw in
it:” Link

For the second year in a row, my friend Erica and her mother and her father have conducted Turduckencam for the holidays. In case anyone doesn’t know by now, a turducken is a chicken stuffed in a duck stuffed in a turkey. All three layers of meat are separated by layers of different filling. Mmmmm! No clue if they then plan to stuff it into a goose, then an emu, and then an ostrich…

As for the food, I’ve always been wary of anything on a plate that begins with the letters T-U-R-D, but hey, whatever floats your holiday boat. Also, a question: is the vegan version of this called a tofucken? Just asking.

Reader comment: louisiana refugee sez,

Please school these people a bit more about turducken. its a Louisiana thing, ya herd? Links: 1, 2, 3, 4

TofuRkeys are great, but this recipe has been going around in vegan circles for years:
Link. People who’ve had both tend to say the home version is far greater.

turlygod says,

Here is a link to a ten bird roast recipe that Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall (yes, he’s posh) did on River Cottage.
“You need a whole free range turkey… and a whole goose (6-7kg). And then a selection of 8-10 smaller birds…”
The Beeb are doing well with back-catloguing what people want to see again. So watch the short vid (QT or WM).

FBI documents from 1947 show that government officials once believed the Christmas movie classic “It’s a Wonderful Life” was Communist propaganda. About the FBI memo titled “COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF THE MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY,” Blogger Will Chen writes,

I love It’s a Wonderful Life because it teaches us that family, friendship, and virtue are the true definitions of wealth.

In 1947, however, the FBI considered this anti-consumerist message as subversive Communist propaganda (read original FBI memo).

According to Professor John Noakes of Franklin and Marshall College, the FBI thought Life smeared American values such as wealth and free enterprise while glorifying anti-American values such as the triumph of the common man.

Here’s a Santa’s-eye view of Denver International Airport, where many people — including some BoingBoing readers! — have been snowed in over the past week. The airport has reopened, but flights are still snarled. Hang in there, guys, and hope you get to where you’re going soon.

Another bizare ‘Pro-NRA/SantaVsTerroist-SuicideBomber/TerroistVsBabyJesus’
etc card I came across is linked here.
The chihuaha may have been the root of all this? I swear, it gets
stranger all the time.

Jim Murphy says,

The sheer strangeness of that chihuaha card motivated me to slap together an animated christmas greeting: Link.
Happy Christmas!

Rachel says,

The chihuahua/gun Christmas card reminded me of this super creepy card that my dad received at his business last year. I thought it was just the sort of thing you guys would appreciate in all its disturbing glory. Flickr link.

Update (Mon., Dec. 25): This is not a hoax. I’ve been updating this item for a few days with reader comments debating authenticity (see bottom of post), and I’m now confident it’s legit. Wonkette kindly shared a copy of the original PDF with us Sunday, and here it is: PDF LINK. Based on that, and copies of the Jan. 2007 cover of NRA magazine “America’s 1st Freedom” uploaded by people who say they’re NRA members (Link to scans), and illustrator Chris Gall’s website — I don’t see any reason to doubt. Thanks to everyone who wrote in. On the internet, I guess it’s better to be too skeptical than too prankable. Thanks also to the solid guys at Wonkette for yet another great scoop (BTW, now that it’s written by two manly he-dudes, I think they should gender-correct the name… Wonkero ? ).

———————-

Wonkette has published sneak peek scans from a new “graphic novel” attributed to the NRA to promote membership (don’t miss the image alt tags.)

The illustrations are terrific. Above: With their mutant critter hordes of lobsters, islamofascist deer, and TNT-totin’ owls, razor-eschewing hippie chicks who’ve escaped from R. Crumb comix are coming to burn down your white suburban home. And ye shall know them by the tracks of their Birkenstocks.

At left: your television is controlled by fire and drool-spewing ghost-ogres from Japanese fairy tales.

Link to scans from the Jack-Chick-esque “Freedom In Peril: Guarding the 2nd Amendment in the 21st Century,” attributed to the National Rifle Association of America (I contacted the NRA to request confirmation, but have not yet received a reply).

An NRA member (which I’m not) over at DailyKos highly doubts this comic is true. And as he says, anyone who knows much about the NRA knows that they don’t get involved in this sort of public propaganda. Of course, much of the damage has already been done, as with most false viral memes. Link.

However: an editor at Wonkette explains out that the jpegs came from their computer, not the creator of the brochure (which Wonkette received in PDF format — Link to a copy). Plus, as BoingBoing reader Miguel Borges explains,

The person who claims it’s a hoax is using the “Ducky” tag in the jpg as the proof that it comes from duckymag.com. Of course, “DUCKY” is one of the default application tags for Photoshop-produced jpegs. I believe it means the image was saved with the “Save for Web” feature. It has nothing to do with duckymag.com. Check out this google search for a bunch of examples of “DUCKY” tags on jpgs: Link.

Tamara Scott says,

I am pretty positive that is the work of comic book artist Charles Burns.

Other readers wrote in to say no way. Julian Miller wrote:

That’s so far off base that it’s not funny - Charles Burns would never associate himself with the NRA. Link 1, 2.

Actually, it looks like commenters at Wonkette have figured out that the illustrator is Chris Gall: Link to thread.

In Putnam County, Georgia, a religious sect known as the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors operated for years while repeatedly defying local authorities. Ultimately, their property was seized. Soon after the raid, photographer A. Scott gained access to the compound to document its eerie and fascinating iconography.

Link to the Oxford American “web extras” page, which contains an audio slideshow narrated by the photographer, A. Scott. Unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be an easy direct link (grrrrr), so you may have to scroll down when this post becomes dated. Here’s a direct link to the transcript of Scott’s narrative: Link. Snip:

You saw the two pyramids as you rounded the bend in the highway. They were several stories high, rising above the Georgia pines. One was black and one was golden. If your car windows were rolled down, you could hear an ummmmm coming from unseen speakers.

As the road made another bend, the entire complex came into view: the sphinx, the temple of the bull-god, the groves of fake palm trees, the thirty-foot-high golden ankhs, the rows of statues of animal-headed Egyptian deities, and—in some ways strangest of all, given the setting—a billboard that read JOHN 3:16. This was Tama-Re, the compound of the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors. These photographs were taken shortly before the place was bulldozed. The Nuwaubians are an offshoot of the Nation of Islam. Dwight “Malachi Z.” York founded the group and led its members. (…)

York was convicted of child molestation and racketeering in 2004. He is currently serving 135 years. The federal government seized Tama-Re.